Miami International Film Festival Announces This Year's Winners

After nearly two full weeks of movie screenings, directors' lectures, and more, the Miami International Film Festival's 2012 edition wrapped up Saturday with the announcement of this year's winners at the Gusman. While you were drinking your way from premiere gala to premiere gala and celebrity-spotting at red carpet events, more serious film buffs were busy selecting the best of the best. And we're happy to report that some of our favorites made the cut.

Check out the list of winners after the jump.

The big cash prize this year went to Bonsai, a Chilean film about a man struggling to be a writer -- and to impress a pretty young lady by lying about having read Proust -- earning the movie a cool $30,000. And the prizes don't stop there; screenwriter Christian Jimenez, who adapted the film from Alejandro Zamba's novel, earned another $5,000 to the films winnings, thanks to the Jordan A. Ressler Screenwriting Award.

The Audience Award this year went to Juan of the Dead, which was no surprise. The zombie movie satire from Cuba was one of this festival's most highly anticipated films.

Additional film awards included:

Knight Documentary Grand Jury PrizeThe Imposter, a film from the U.K. about Frédéric Bourdin, a French-Algerian con man, won $10,000 for director Burt Layton and crew.

Ciara LaVelle is New Times' arts and culture editor. She earned her BS in journalism at Boston University and moved to Florida in 2004. She joined New Times' staff in 2011 and left the paper in 2014, but two years and two babies later, returned.